CSR (Women's Basketball Defeats Tri-State/Men's Basketball Falls to Hope)

CALVIN SPORTS REPORT FOR FEBRUARY 20, 2008

Women's Basketball Finishes Out MIAA Campaign With Win at Tri-State;
Men's Basketball Falls at Hope in 168th Meeting of The Rivalry

WOMEN'S BASKETBALL
Calvin 67, Tri-State 55

ANGOLA, IN -- Calvin closed out its regular season with a 67-55 victory at
Tri-State on Wednesday night. The Knights finish out the regular season with a
15-8 overall record and an 11-5 conference mark, good for third place in the
final MIAA regular season standings.

Calvin also holds the third seed for next week's MIAA Tournament in a first
round game next Tuesday night at 7:30 p.m. at the Calvin Fieldhouse. Calvin's
first round opponent has yet to be determined.

Junior Marcia Harris (Grand Rapids Christian HS) continued her strong play in
the post with 23 points and 10 rebounds, recording her third double-double of
the season and the fifth of her Calvin career. Harris scored 16 of her points
in the first half, helping stake the Knights to a 44-24 halftime lead.

Harris formed a strong inside tandem for the Knights as junior post Brook
VanEck (Lowell HS) ripped down a game-high 11 rebounds to go with six points.
Junior Kristi Brummel (South Christian HS) also tossed in nine points off the
bench including three triples. Sophomore Amber Benthem (McBain Christian HS)
also had two triples to help Calvin hit nine trifectas on the evening. In
addition, junior Kelly Trewhella (Rockford HS) had two treys in seven minutes
of action. Junior Sarah Partridge (East Lansing HS) also had a big night with
seven points, five rebounds, two steals and a career-high eight assists. Senior
Nikki Zimmerman (Traverse City West HS) chipped in with four assists and four
rebounds.

Calvin shot 51.7 percent in the first half while holding Tri-State (6-17
overall, 3-12 MIAA) to 37 percent field goal shooting. Tri-State was led in
defeat by Sarah Howe with 24 points while Jordan Loveberry had 11 points.

Calvin held a 44-31 rebounding advantage including a 24-16 edge in the second
half.

Calvin will now break until next Tuesday's first round MIAA Tournament game.

OTHER MIAA WOMEN'S BASKETBALL SCORES WEDNESDAY

Hope 91, Kalamazoo 53
Saint Mary's 74, Adrian 63
Olivet 69, Alma 59

MIAA WOMEN'S BASKETBALL STANDINGS THROUGH 2-20-08 GAMES

Hope 15-0
Albion 12-3
Calvin 11-5
Olivet 7-8
Saint Mary's 7-8
Adrian 6-9
Alma 6-9
Tri-State 3-12
Kalamazoo 1-14

MEN'S BASKETBALL
Hope 76, Calvin 59
(written by Bruce VanBaren '09)

After four of the previous five conference meetings between Calvin and Hope
came down to the final possession, the Dutchmen put up 50 points in the first
half en route to a 76-59 win over the Knights before a record crowd of 3,603 at
the DeVos Fieldhouse Wednesday night.

Jessie Reimink carried Hope to a nearly perfect start draining three of three
from beyond the arc as the Dutchmen hit four straight three pointers to start
the game. Reimink had 19 first half points as the Knights gave up 50 first half
points for the first time since the 2007 NCAA III Tournament second round loss
to Hope in Aurora, Ill that ended its season a year ago.

“Hope made a great statement about who wanted to win the conference
championship,” said Calvin coach Kevin Vande Streek. “They really knocked us
back on our heals offensively and defensively I thought. They capitalized and
all of a sudden it was a runaway locomotive.”

Hope sits in first place with a 12-1 record, a game ahead of Albion in the MIAA
Conference Standings. A win at Tri-State on
Saturday will give the Dutchmen their second straight conference championship.
Meanwhile, Calvin sits at 9-4 in third place and will host a first round MIAA
Tournament game next Wednesday night against an opponent yet to be determined.
The Dutchmen’s win gives Hope a two game, 85-83 lead in the all-time
Calvin-Hope series that spans 84 years and 168 games.

“You go into a game like this and you never know what to expect,” said Hope
coach Glen Van Wieren. “All of a sudden your guys have pretty gCalvin fueled Reimink and the Dutchmen’s hot start with nine first half
turnovers, including three in the first five minutes as only three players
scored for the Knights in the first half. Calvin’s starting guards combined for
2 of 14 from the field and three turnovers.

“I thought our offense was really good in the first half, we scored 50 points,
but I thought our defense was better,” said Van Wieren. “I thought that defense
in the first half really enabled us to ignite our offense. A lot of offense
came off what happened on defense.”

Calvin’s lone bright spot offensively was its inside presence. After Marcus
Vanderheide’s dominating performance in Calvin’s 79-76 loss in January, he was
held to thirteen points. Offensively, sophomores Josh Engelsma (Walker/
Covenant Christian) and John Mantel (Chelsea/ Chelsea)combined for 30 points on
 13 of 21 from the field and 13 rebounds.

“I’m happy with the progress that these two sophomore guys have made,” said
Vande Streek. “Both players are playing pretty well in all facets of the game.”

As for the Knights’ perimeter presence, Derek Griffin (Whitehall/ Muskegan CC),
Calvin’s second leading scorer, was shut out for the first time in his career.
When asked what he would have thought if told ahead of time that of Griffin
would be shut out, Vande Streek was succinct.

 “I’d say we’re going to lose by 25,” said Vande Streek. “I feel really bad for
Derek because no one wants to win as bad as he does. I give the Hope defense
all the credit they did a really nice job guarding him.”

Calvin shot 35.7% from the field in the first half compared to Hope’s 56.3%.
The Knights were hit one of five from beyond the arc. Conversely, the Dutchmen
hit 7 of 14 from three-point range with Reimink hitting 4 of 5 and Derek
VanSolkema hitting 2 of 3.

Calvin opened the half with a 12-4 run and was able to cut a 30 point Hope lead
to seventeen after a Caleb Veldhouse (Sioux Falls, SD/ Sioux Falls Christian)
three-pointer with 13:49 remaining. Veldhouse ignited in the second half with
13 points over that stretch and had 18 total second half points.

“I was really happy [with Caleb’s performance], he’s a great competitor,” said
Vande Streek. “He wants to give his best effort; he wants to be on the floor.
He’s had a chance to be in some big games and he certainly doesn’t shy away and
give up, that’s for sure.”

“Caleb got going,” said Van Wieren. “How do you stop Caleb when he gets going?
I don’t know, he’s just a great player. He started hitting shots and when he
starts hitting shots you think he’s going to bring [Calvin] back [into the
game] and he tried, he tried hard. We really wanted Caleb to do a lot of moving
away from the basketball, to really try to wear him down because he has always
hurt us.”

But Veldhouse’s 23 points weren’t enough to stop Reimink and the Dutchmen.
After Veldhouse led the Knights’ surge, Reimink hit two of his six three
pointers to extend Hope’s lead to 22 points.

“We can’t say much except that we came out super flat and played atrocious the
first half and they played great,” said Veldhouse. “They stuck it right to us.
We battled in the second half and we came back with a little more pride and a
little more effort. We couldn’t dig ourselves out of that whole.”

“The things I said at halftime was that we didn’t play unified and we didn’t
have enough effort,” said Vande Streek. “Offensively we got down a little bit
and it seemed to be very individual and that hurts us even more. And the
intensity factor was certainly in Hope’s favor in the beginning of the game. In
the second half I thought we did those two things better.”

Only five players scored for the Knights, and only three Knights had more than
four points. Veldhouse’s 23 points was tops for the Knights followed by
Mantel’s 17 and Engelsma’s 13. Reimink led all scorers with 25 points for
Hope, followed by Vanderheide and Tyler Wolfe who each had 13 points. Hope’s
five starters who scored all 79 of the Dutchmen’s points against Calvin in
January, combined for 58 points. Reimink and Vanderheide led in rebounds, each
with nine.
Calvin will travel to Olivet on Saturday for the regular season finale for both
teams. The game is scheduled to start at 3:00 p.m.

OTHER MIAA MEN'S BASKETBALL SCORES WEDNESDAY NIGHT

Alma 58, Adrian 56
Albion 60, Tri-State 50
Olivet 87, Kalamazoo 61

MIAA MEN'S BASKETBALL STANDINGS THROUGH 2-20-08 GAMES

Hope 12-1
Albion 11-2
Calvin 9-4
Tri-State 6-7
Adrian 4-9
Olivet 4-9
Kalamazoo 3-10
Alma 3-10

Jeff Febus
Sports Information Director
Calvin College
(616) 526-6169 Office
(616) 526-8551 Fax
Received on Thu Feb 21 00:53:48 2008